darkSpyro

Apologies for the little delay, more story coming tomorrow.

Thanks guys, really. I know it often takes me a long time to add to my fanfic even though the chapters are fairly short, and sometimes (like what happened now) I even forget to write. It makes me feel good to know that people still care enough to wait for more.

I won't spoil what's going to happen in the story, but the general idea of how the ending is going to work out has staid the same.

I'm going to continue writing after Christmas, when I'm not as busy as I am now. I hope you guys can wait until then, because I've got most of the storyline planned ahead now.

I probably won't be able to write this weekend, as I'm pretty busy on Sunday (today actually), but next week is a regular week for me, so I'll try to find some time to add new chapters.

A bit, but I'm still working on the story little by little.

I mean, it's not like I had a huge amount of motivation and time to write before either, right?

Chapter 58.

The hours passed quickly aboard the galleon. Spyro spent most of the day observing the crewmen working on the top deck and gazing over towards the horizon. He didn't remember much from the last time he had been at sea, but he recalled that it certainly hadn't been such a peaceful visit. Mirra had also come out of his thoughts, and was now chatting cheerfully with Balak, who was sitting in a small, round table with a few of the crewmen, holding cups in their hand upside down.
Hurting for things to do, Spyro decided to join them.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked, as he approached them.

"We're playing dice!" Balak shouted cheerfully, "Though Mirra here was too much of a coward to join us!" He laughed.

Mirra chuckled at Balak's teasing, and said: "I know better than to play a game about cheating with an ape. Your people are good at lying."

"Indeed! And it is a handy skill to have at times like these!" Balak replied.

"Seven fives." The mole to the right of Balak stated loudly.

Balak tipped the cup in his hand, and revealed the five dice hidden underneath to Spyro, who was standing next to him, taking great care to not let the moles around him to see the dice. All five of them were facing up as fives. He winked at Spyro, who looked confused.

"Eight fives." Balak said to the moles.

"Liar!" The mole to the right of him shouted. All the players lifted up their cups, and revealed their dices to each other. Balak quickly counted nine fives out of all of them.

"Ha! I did not lie! Lose the dice." Balak said to the mole, who put away his only remaining dice, and left the table.

"Can you teach me how to play?" Spyro asked balak.

"Of course! Take a seat, I'll explain it to you." Balak replied.

Spyro sat on the empty chair, and watched as Balak played with the moles. Balak explained the game to him, and how the point of it was to lie subtly enough to not let others to be sure of your bluff. If you got caught bluffing, you lost a die. If you falsely accused someone of bluffing, you lost a die. The last man standing won, and took the money with him.

Spyro played a couple of rounds with the moles, but was outwitted by Balak every time. He felt humiliated to get beaten by an ape, but reminded himself of who he was dealing with. Balak was an old, experienced adventurer. He had seen much more in his long life than Spyro had, even though he had saved the world once. He turned his face to Mirra, and wondered how much he too had experienced.
The game ended with a laugh, as the moles, along with Balak and Mirra, told stories of their travels to each other. Spyro listened to them, mesmerized. He had never truly considered exactly who he was traveling with, but -watching Mirra and Balak work together- it was slowly beginning to dawn on him.

Suddnely, a burst of laughter was heard from behind him. Spyro turned to see the crowd cheering at something. He rose up from the chair to see what the fuzz was about, and saw Ember, dancing in the middle of the crowd. She was standing on her hind legs, making pirouettes while leaning her head back, and balancing herself with her tail and front legs. Her moments looked fluid and somehow mesmerizing, but also a bit wavering.

"Ah, I figured that this was going to happen." Mirra said.

"What do you mean?" Spyro said, as he turned his face towards Mirra.

"Ember is seasick, and afraid of the water. The ship doctor probably gave her rum to calm her nerves." He chuckled quietly.

"Ha ha! Look at her go!" Balak pointed in her direction. "The crew completely forgot their duties!"

"Let's go help the captain, he can't have the crew distracted." Mirra laughed and shook his head. He left off towards the crowd.

"Oh, right." Balak said and jogged after Mirra.

While the crew were being brought back to reality by the barking commands of their captain, Spyro approached Ember cautiously. She seemed much more energetic now than before.

"Oh, hiii!.." She giggled and jumped at Spyro. "Did you see my dance?.."

"Yes I did, it was... Very nice." Spyro replied, not wanting to give her a reason to get too exited. The smell of her breath reminded him of the time when he had been drinking in the cheetah village, which wasn't an especially good memory.

"I knew it! You really can't keep your eyes off me, can you?.. Or well, your eye. You know.." Ember giggled at her own joke. Each of her sentences seemed to end in an awkward pause. Whatever she had been drinking had a visible effect on her.

"Uhh, well. Maybe we could talk about that when we're not surrounded by people?" Spyro said, and looked around himself. Most of the crewmen had returned to work, but a few of them stuck around, nudging each other with their elbows and laughing audibly. Mirra and Balak were also standing around, enjoying the humorous sight.

"Ohh.. You mean, in private?.." Ember said and got closer to Spyro, wrapping her tail around his frong leg. "I get it.. I get what you mean.. Let's talk about it in private."

"Yeahh.. I-" Spyro said, trying to pull himself from Ember's grasp, who only tightened his grip in reaction to his efforts to leave.

"You're not going anywhere, handsome.." Ember said, and licked Spyro's scarred face. Spyro winced a bit from the strange feeling, and tried to turn his face away.

"Come on now, the captain need's Spyro's help. You should go take some rest." Mirra said, and put his hand on Ember's back.

"It's very important, you wouldn't want to hold him, would you?" Balak agreed.

"Aww.. But I- ..Okay. I'll go take some rest.. But we'll talk again tomorrow, won't we?!" Ember said to spyro, and giggled loudly for the third time. At this point Spyro didn't know if she was trying to hug him, or if she was holding onto him to not fall down.

Balak took Ember and led her below deck. Spyro sighed from relief.

"I thought it couldn't get any more awkward with her." He said. "Where's the captain?"

"Oh, he doesn't actually need your help. We just wanted to help you out." Mirra said and smiled.

Spyro smiled also. He had been missing such quiet, happy times with his friends.

"It's not going to be long before the sun sets. How about we go and see if the captain really need's any help?" Mirra asked him.

"Yeah, let's do that." Spyro agreed, and they both went on their way.

---

There. Sorry for the long wait everyone! Also, if anyone really wants to learn how to play liar's dice, I can try to explain it to you.

Well it's a lot more complicated than how I just explained it in the chapter. The point is to bet how many of whatever numbers there are present in the whole table, meaning that all the dices in the table count towards the bet, and not just your own, but obviously you can only see your own dice.
Also, if for example you bet that there are four fours, and there are actually more than that, it's still not a lie because there were at least four fours on the table.

When it's their turn, players have two options.
A: They can call the person who's turn came before them a liar (they cannot call anybody else a liar).
B: They can make a bet.

Each player also cannot make whatever bet they wish to make, but they must always build on the last bet. Meaning that they have to either bet that there are more of the same number, or any amount of a higher number. Therefore the bet can only rise, and thus become more unreasonable until someone calls the person who's turn came before them a liar.

I see what you did there, and I get what you mean.

I meant to write a new chapter last weekend but again I forgot about it. I'll try to write parts of it ready so that I just have to copy it and post it when it's finished.

Thanks for the poke. As usual I often forget about this story completely, and sometimes I need a reminder.

Next time just send me a PM though. Even though Fandom is pretty inactive bumping topics is still against the rules.